Japan Vows To Continue Efforts To Free Hostages From ISIS
Japan has vowed not to give up on freeing two of its citizens thought to be held in Syria by Islamist extremists "until the very end" despite the fact that a deadline for a $200 million ransom payment has long passed.
Meanwhile, Tokyo says it is trying to verify a video purporting to show hostage Kenji Goto holding a photo of beheaded fellow captive Haruna Yakaw.
The kidnappers claiming to be from the self-declared Islamic State gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to produce the ransom to prevent Goto, 47, and Yakaw, 42, from being executed. That deadline passed on Friday and there has been no confirmed word from the captors.
Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister sent to Amman, Jordan, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying he "is working around the clock to coordinate efforts to save the hostages.
"We will not rule out any possibility, and we are verifying all information thoroughly," he said, according to AP. "We will not give up. I believe it is my duty to ensure we will definitely get them back home, and I will do my utmost to do so."
The Telegraph reports that Abe met Friday with his National Security Council to discuss the crisis as "Japan has scrambled for a way to secure the release of Goto, a journalist, and Yukawa, an adventurer fascinated by war. Japanese diplomats had left Syria as the civil war there escalated, adding to the difficulty of contacting the militants holding the hostages."
As we reported earlier, the $200 million sum demanded by the kidnappers is equivalent to the amount of money Japan pledged in non-military aid to countries in the region facing threats from the Islamic State militancy.
Islamic State
kidnapping
Japan